The author views the primary purpose of the modern engineering laboratory as teaching the student how to experiment. An attempt is made to update the engineering laboratory and make it generally meaningful for all students, whether headed for graduate school or an industrial job. The intent is to broaden the experimental picture so that students…

The development of a prototype computerized, criterion-referenced test of certain nonperformance musical behaviors for administration to entering students in music education at a state university was undertaken. After the formulation of statements of competencies to serve as conceptual bases for the formulation of test items, items were…

Some theoretical concerns for competency-based evaluation instruments are discussed, and means of examining these instruments for validity and reliability are presented. The areas of concern include descriptions of the behavior, the level of response, and the nature of the evaluation. Two different types of instruments are examined to determine…

The studies and research reviews included in the annotated bibliography consist primarily of published works dealing with the effects on learning from instructional materials of overt and covert responding, and such attention-directing devices as the presentation of instructional objectives and test-embedded questions. Sources used to identify…

Relationship between WISC-R subtest scores and Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs was investigated for a sample comprised of rural Appalachian children. The sample was comprised of both white and black children culturally different by virtue of low family income and residence in mountainous areas of Virginia and North Carolina. (Author)

Describes and recommends to typing teachers the Time and Speed Scoring (TASS) method for testing typewriting production and figuring production rates. This method measures speed and quality as two separate items, because proficiency in production typewriting should reflect the student's skill in typing both accurately and quickly. (MF)

Discusses the relevance of applied performance testing to classroom testing and outlines strategies that teachers may take in incorporating this testing method into their classroom activities. (Author/RK)

Timed performance measures from a coincidence timing task taking about 10 minutes are shown to have significant correlations with psychometric general intelligence in a group of 56 children. The mean absolute error across three conditions correlated -.294 with Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores but was sex-biased, with girls being less…

The effect of microcomputers as testing tools was investigated in this study. The performance of students on a classroom evaluation and their attitude about computers were not affected when the evaluation was administered on a microcomputer. Time requirements for this method of testing were also tested. (Author)

In two experiments, 5- to 13-year-old children mentally tracked the rotation of a pointer around a circular backdrop to indicate the pointer's imagined position on a backdrop at the sound of a signal. Results indicated that children older than eight years generated linear distance x time functions indicating mental tracking but that younger…

This report examines teachers' educational background and students' overall performance on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R). Data analyses show that there are 17 Delaware classrooms performing above the average U.S. student score of 502. The majority of teachers in the top 10 higher performing classrooms had…

Teachers must evaluate, judge, and award grades but all too often they evaluate students merely to submit that time-honored course grade. The use of measurement instruments, their reliability and validity, and the role of instructional objectives are presented in the light of their use in educational evaluation. (DS)

Twenty-five retarded and 25 nonretarded children, mean age 16 and 9 years respectively, matched for mental age, performed two-bit (four-choice) and three-bit (eight-choice) problem solving tasks to determine whether group performance differences would increase with task complexity and whether performance of the retarded children would be poorer.…

Describes a performance-based program for the undergraduate education of teachers that gives students an early opportunity to integrate classroom practice with theory. (GB)

Three week study of second graders indicated that nonsense words were more effective than meaningful words in teaching alphabetizing. (SP)